Module 2 The Renaissance

跟踪导练

阅读理解

A

I'm interested in the Renaissance， so I like visiting ancient Italian cities. Ferrara is called City of the Renaissance. When I learned about this city on the Internet， I decided to pay a visit to it.

The city has its certain charm and calmness， but I find it isn't as great as other Italian cities like Verona， Venice or Rome. The Michelin Green Guide gives it two stars， which is right.

I first visited the city center. The Cathedral and the Castle are at the heart of the city. Both have striking appearances. I visited the Cathedral first. The Castle is also worth visiting. On the lower levels， the history of the city and the d'Este family is told through displays， and in another part the ceilings are shown up close in mirrors on the ground.

In the north， we can appreciate the Renaissance extension of the town， with straight streets and monumental houses. The famous Palazzo deiDiamanti lies here. When I was visiting it， it started to rain， so after taking a few photos quickly， I cut my visit there short.

It had been raining for a few days. When the rain stopped， I went to visit the historical center and the Renaissance buildings. Then I saw a street and found Castello Estense， which owes its name to the powerful family d'Este. It was built with bricks and surrounded by a moat （护城河）.

After leaving there， I visited several other interesting places such as palaces， churches and the narrow streets of the downtown. After four hours in Ferrara I left by train to Mantua.There I had a much better time.

1. Why did the author pay a visit to Ferrara？

A. It is related to the Renaissance.         B. It is full of charm and calmness.

C. It is a very famous city in Europe.       D. It is strongly recommended by a guide book.

2. What did the author think of the comment of The Michelin Green Guide on Ferrara？

A. Ridiculous.       B. Reasonable.      C. Unacceptable.     D. Unbelievable.

3. How did Castello Estense probably get its name？

A. It came from the historical buildings.     B. It originated from the straight streets.

C. It was named after the powerful family.   D. It was connected to the surrounding moat.

4. What can we infer about the author from the text？

A. He liked Mantua more than Ferrara.

B. He thought Ferrara was as great as Venice.

C. He visited Palazzo deiDiamanti for a long time.

D. He was disappointed with the visit to the Cathedral and the Castle.

B

More than 140 sign languages are used today， primarily by deaf communities. Like spoken languages， each sign language has its own grammar， vocabulary and other special features. For example， American Sign Language is unintelligible （难懂的） to British Sign Language. In fact， American Sign Language has more in common with French Sign Language， largely because French educators played a key role in helping get deaf schools founded in the United States during the 19th century.

There haven't been many comparisons of sign languages. University of Texas， Austin linguist Justin Power， and his colleagues aim to address that information gap. In order to study the question of sign language evolution， they first collected a database of manual alphabets from dozens of different sign languages around the world. So a manual alphabet is kind of a subsystem within a sign language that is used to represent a written language. And there's a hand shape that corresponds to each letter.

To uncover relationships between the alphabets， the researchers used methods that grouped sign languages in this study into five main European lineages （谱系）—Austrian origin， British origin， French origin， Spanish and Swedish. Power says manual alphabets from Austria， France and Spain could date back to one-handed manual alphabets from 16th- and 17th-century Spain. But each of those lineages evolved independently of each other.

The study also confirmed the French origins of American Sign Language and those of other countries， including Mexico， Brazil and the Netherlands. Surprisingly， the Austrian manual alphabet influenced sign languages as far away as Russia. But while this lineage has largely died out， remains of it live on in Icelandic Sign Language today.

Power says future research comparing the vocabularies of different sign languages could provide even more clues about how they've changed over time. Understanding how sign languages evolve would tell us a lot about the way that language， in general， evolves.

5. What can we learn about American Sign Language？

A. It was created by French educators.

B. It is less related to French Sign Language.

C. It was further developed before the l9th century.